Jerusalem! Jerusalem!

I'm officially in the Middle East and survived my first day of the trip. I have so much to write about!! I was in travel pool today so it was a very, very busy day. We started with a bus ride from Jerusalem to the airport near Tel Aviv. We drove the opposite route last night to Jerusalem but didn't see anything because it was dark. This morning's drive was beautiful along the hills and the roads! There was a fog in the valley along certain villages and it was truly beautiful!

We got to the airport a couple of hours before the plane landed so we watched all the Israelis get set up for the arrival ceremony. I was on the front row and had a fairly good view with the exception of a bunch of rabbis and priests standing in front of me. The whole experience was crazy! They shut down a terminal of the Ben-Guron airport and we went through security which included getting our hands swiped for traces of explosive materials. Don't worry! I was clean! My favorite part of the process was when the Israeli security guy asked very politely in broken English, "Ma'am do you please have weapons?" I said no and he just took my word for it!

Anyway, the ceremony was pretty cool and it was the start of a historic trip and all three leaders talked (Bush, Olmert and Peres). The coolest part was when it was done, we took helicopters from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. I didn't really see anything specific but just flying over the small cities, villages, and farmlands was incredibly cool. It seemed to me that we had extra choppers in the air protecting us. Or least I'm going to think that to make myself feel safer. Anyway, we landed in a soccer field and motorcaded to the King David Hotel, where the President had a little down time. I ate hummus and felafel while he took a little nap or something.

Then we went to the President of Israel, Shimon Peres's house. When we got there, there will a bunch of kids waving Israeli flags and singing some song. (We were actually about 40 vehicles behind the Pres's limo so we missed the first song by the time we walked all the way to the building.) But we did make it inside in time to hear a 12 year-old girl serenading Bush with a version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" alternating from Hebrew to English and the President just kind of chuckling at her. Then these other kids did this weird dancing and the whole thing was a bit cheesy if you ask me. The scene for the press area was a mob scene and I got pushed around by these very mean Israeli women. We waited there for a while and then we got in the motorcade to drive to the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert's house. We hung outside in a tent while they met (and I had some really good pastries) and then about two hours later, we were at the press conference of the two leaders. It was in this courtyard outside his house and it was cold! I can finally feel my feet again!

Finally when that was over, we motorcaded back to the King David and my travel pool day was officially over. It all went incredibly smoothly with only a few issues that were quickly resolved with a few questions. I was just glad to make it through with never feeling unsafe or completely stressed with work issues.

Here are a few random observations from my trip so far!

*There are a LOT of guns in Israel and EVERYONE carries them. At the airport, we saw a group of teenage girls and ALL of them were carrying machine guns. Every policeman or woman and then many, many random folks in street clothes were lining the streets all with their machine guns/uzis.

*The hummus here is really the best I've ever had anywhere in the world. I think so far I've eaten my weight in it.

*Jerusalem is a very, very hilly place. I now understand why it took Jesus forever to walk places. (Speaking of Jesus, I haven't had a chance to see any of the holy sights but maybe I will have a chance to at least check out the Old City on Friday at some point.) Last night, I went to dinner with my friend Aaron who is working for the WH for this trip. We walked about 15 minutes to a Jerusalem cafe which was really good food!!

Tomorrow I'm headed to Ramallah for the day which will be a very cool experience as well!! I'll attempt to blog about it when I get back! I'm also hoping to have some more pictures posted tomorrow!